2011 Bucket List

• Raise at least $5,000.00 for Darfur/women, children, the oppressed, the forgotten.
• Go camping more than twice.
• Volunteer at an orphange (if indeed my daughter's youth group settles on this idea as a summer project)
• Bring outdoor brisk walking back into my life.
• Talk to God intentionally.
• Do some volunteering with my children.- Especially my teens. (We've been talking (years now?!) about working at a soup kitchen or something equivalent.- I'm open to suggestions from anyone who lives in the Winnipeg area)
• Read to my daytime children.
• Read. Keep reading.
• Embrace my thrift shopping compulsion as an authentic, harmless, fun part of myself. Do not tame that beast- allow it control me! (sort of)
• Forgive.
• Be happy for people. Curb the urge to compare.
• Enjoy every bite of every delicious food that I eat.
• Don't cut down on coffee. At all.

Now, these probably look like cleverly masked resolutions. Which, let's not kid ourselves, they pretty much are. But here's my justification: the root word RESOLVE sounds too much like a big time OATH which leaves room for only two options: succeed or fail. Whereas, GOALS are just bright lights in the future to lead the way. They are attainable, they can be postponed or pursued, and they can be partially or fully completed.

For example: if I raise $500.00 this year, it's because I had hopes to raise $5,000.00.

If I walk seven times this year, it's because I admire my mother who has been walking outdoors almost every day without exception since around the time she turned fifty. She's 84 now, and we still haven't found her. I mean, she's still walking outdoors every day. I think that's really cool. If I walk seven times, it's getting me closer to my goal of turning out like my mother. (tiny, plucky, energetic, determined, self-sufficient)

So what do you think? As a fellow resolution hater, do you find yourself leaning into the new year with some renewed goals? I always find that it energizes and encourages me to have a general direction to square my shoulders into. 2011, Here I Come.